VIDEO:The Beat crew discusses the Nets’ rough start to the seasonHANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Humbling is the weight of great expectations, as the men in black and white in Brooklyn have learned through the first month of this NBA season. It’s a lesson their counterparts in Los Angeles, the Lakers, learned in much the same fashion last season. The addition of star power, remembered, real or imagined, does not always translate.

Brooklyn’s Nets are in essence a complete mess right now. A 3-10 record, next to last in the Eastern Conference standings, wounded bodies, pierced pride and nearing the point of no return is where this crew resides heading into tonight’s matchup (7 p.m. ET, League Pass) with a Toronto Raptors team that currently occupies the top-four spot in the Eastern Conference standings that the Nets assumed was theirs.

No disrespect to the men at work, but you know things are dire when Shaun Livingston and Mason Plumlee are the only players on your roster who pose a consistent threat to opposing teams with their athleticism, energy and passion. That collection of aged superstars who were supposed to lead this group have, for whatever reasons, not answered the call on a nightly basis.

Take Sunday’s loss to Detroit for example. To start the fourth quarter, Nets coach Jason Kidd a lineup of Plumlee, Tyshawn Taylor, Alan Anderson, Toko Shengelia and Mirza Teletovic on the floor against Detroit. They trailed by 12 points, due the inept performance, to that point, of the first six who had dug that hole.

The idea of Williams, Lopez, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Joe Johnson and Jason Terry terrorizing the league from opening night through the end of the regular season was a pipe dream from the start. But the reality of the Nets’ situation is even more grave than any of their critics might have imagined.

Yet that is exactly where the team with the worst second-half defensive in the league stands as of right now. And that’s not even factoring in the inevitable locker room fissures that are bound to pop up when a high-profile team encounters these sorts of struggles.

Garnett was supposed to be a culture-changer, the sort of dynamic force that unites a group, even mismatching pieces, into a cohesive unit the way he did in Boston. That obviously hasn’t happened, at least not yet. And there is no guarantee it will. Not with the make-up of this group and the fact that there isn’t someone at the top (in Boston it was coach Doc Rivers) to set the tone and table for a player with Garnett’s reputation and leadership skills to do his thing without any second guessing from within that locker room.

Ultimately, the onus for this team and its fortunes rests on the entire group and whether or not they can tread water until they get everyone healthy enough to have a chance to chase the enormous expectations that have been set for them, both internally and beyond.

But we’re getting dangerously close that to that 20-game mark where a team’s true colors show. And the Nets from everything we’ve seen, have not lived up to the hype and quite frankly may not be able to as presently constituted.

35 Comments

The key seems to really be Deron Williams. He needs to get healthy in a hurry. If so, the Nets will climb out of this slump and easily make the playoffs in the weak East.

Even if Deron struggles, the Nets still may barely make the playoffs in the weak, weak East. Then, they can hope to use their vast experience, which could prove to wind up being a tough out for opposing playoff East teams.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, “The reports of their death are greatly exaggerated.”

And for you Fellowship of the Ring fans:
“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien

I don’t deny that while the mind and heart may be willing, the body often won’t comply. But these geezer guys that everyone’s rushing to write off have more pride in their little pinkies than a lot of the ” jump out of the gym” super-athletic dudes out there and I know there’s enough gas in the tank for them to compete at a much higher level than what they’ve shown so far. Give them time to heal (injuries) and congeal (chemistry) and let’s see if we got what we thought we’d have.

the fact of the matter is the miami heat started 9-8 in 2010 and ended up playing for the championship that year im not a brooklyn fan but the east is so weak they can get a 7 or 8 seed even if they play like trash

Hi, Sekou, its Johnny from Ensenada. The moral of this story is bad things happen when you try to skate by on the cheap. If their cheapskate owner only spent some REAL MONEY on this team they would have a chance.

I never believed this team would contend. Granted I didn’t expect they would start 3-10, but nonetheless, they’re lucky to be in the worst division in the NBA. The Atlantic division might be won by a team under .500. So that’s in the Nets’s favor. But I still don’t know if I would bet on them making the playoffs. They just continue digging themselves a hole. Pretty soon that hole will be impossible to climb out of because they won’t be able to win enough games to do so. I know we’re only 16% of the way through the season, but the Nets have lost more than triple the number of games they have won, that’s like a 1-3 NFL team that is about to be 1-4. I don’t like their chances at all.

I wouldn’t sleep on them though. They’re only challenge is health and chemistry, because they definitely have the talent to play most of the league’s best. I believe they can turn it around, and with a team of veterans like they have, all they need to do is sneak into the playoffs with the 4-6 seed and they can make some noise!

KG and PP’s success the last 3 years was because of Rondo and they would’ve won over the Knicks if Rondo never got injured. Dwill is overrated and is bugged with injuries and will never be in the same level as Rondo.

as i said and i am right again just like i said last year with the lakers, the nets is going to be a joke. garnet talking smack against the best player in the world, pierce saying they the team in new york. with all the money that team is paying. they could just build a team full of dleague players with half of that money and still play better lol. now im also saying for the next 2 years the lakers is going to be a joke. put my words in stone

I hope this team never works out, just cause teams should not be able to pay for a championship like billionaire russian mobster tried to do. There’s too many studs on this team to work out, and with this many stars you need a coach who they can look up to, not a peer like j kidd. He wouldve been a good coach for a young team like the celtics. Why do you think Jay-Z sold his stake? He knew this wasn’t going to work. The nets had a good thing going before – Dwill, johnson and lopez are a solid big 3. Just get some better role players and a year or two together and it wouldve worked.

This is surprising, I never thought they would start 3-10. Some big injuries and an inexperienced coach are a good reason they’re like this though. They’ll finish above .500 so everyone should calm down for now.

They might if they get rid of Kidd. He has no idea how to coach. Basketball IQ alone doesn’t make you a great coach. You need the buy in from the players where that can only be achieved if you know how to do that, which he obviously doesn’t. The Kidd has much to learn

Are you kidding me? Except for the Pacers, Miami, and possibly Atlanta (being really generous), NONE of the teams in the East look good. Let up off the Nets. The season just started and if you guys have any integrity, you may be offering a public apology to the Nets organization come mid-season.

I thought the nets were going to be scary this year…boy they sure proved me wrong…especially that arrogant and c0cky garnett and terry…where are their loud mouths now? lol…btw congrats to nowtzki hahaha